Trip Report Revisiting 2016's War and peace I took one for the team

Hello it's me again and if you want to know what the title means you'll have to stick around for a while. Sorry but no spoiler This trip was 3 years in the making and the official countdown started at 439 days. Surprisingly the time seemed to fly by. Our little adventure was taken by me (for those who don't know I'm Figmentfan423 Figgy to my friends here), my dh and our 2 boys James 14 and fellow Disney planner and M who's a bit older autistic and doesn't like getting his picture taken or me talking about him. Our trip began at

am on July 30th. We sang happy birthday to my little guy while driving down the street on our way to Disney. I'm a very mean mommy who made my baby spend his birthday in the car. Any way it was smooth sailing until half way through Virginia where we hit rain and traffic all the way to the North Carolina border. It was bad enough we worried a bit about making it to our hotel for the first night but once we hit NC the skies cleared and so did the traffic and we made it to Florida

to take the obligitory first Florida picture of the boys. With a bit of luck and excitement we made it to Ormond Beach to get a good night's sleep.

 

[Second Star to the Right]

Wednesday August 17th we started in Hogsmeade first thing we did was Forbidden Journey. I made sure to have the camera with me this timeView attachment 162123 View attachment 162124 View attachment 162125 View attachment 162129 View attachment 162132 View attachment 162135 View attachment 162136

This is one of those rides you actually do not want to run through the line! The detail in the castle is amazing!! After dozens of times on this ride, I still manage to find something new each time. Dumbledore's office is great, the first several times I never noticed the pensieve off the left. Duh!

 

[Second Star to the Right]

OH COOL!!! They have a Gregorovich wand shop? Is it different than Olivanders?

It is much smaller than Olivander's and they do not have any type of wand choosing ceremony, but still very fun to look around. Diagon Alley is the best themed area of a park IMO. But, I'm also a HUGE harry potter fan.

 

[betty rose]

View attachment 162657 View attachment 162658 View attachment 162659 View attachment 162660 View attachment 162661 View attachment 162662 The boys walked back to studios to go on RRR I walked over to Margaritaville to "take one for the team" I promised to get a margarita and review it so here it is. First the place is well themed both the decorations and Jimmy Buffet music really set the mood. The volcano going off was great and it burped when finished. I asked the bartender which was the best margarita to try and he suggested the Perfect Margarita or the watermelon one. To which I replied that's a rather hard choice. he had the perfect solution he could give me a combo of the 2. It was so very yummy! Also seeing the boys stole 1/2 my lunch I got an order of gf safe fries to go with it. The fries were perfectly hot, not greasy, not soggy, perfectly crisp and lightly salted. I'd say if you get a chance GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now would I be able to figure out a way to get back before going home? Stay tuned

Thanks for the review, your drink looks amazing. I love watermelon. Nice choice!

 

[betty rose]

You're welcome

We stayed there when it was called the Golf Resort. So many years ago.

 

[betty rose]

From there it was back over to Mummy which my boys LOVE! Seriously where was everybody? A few shots of no crowd what so ever, YEA!!!!!View attachment 163323 View attachment 163324 View attachment 163325 View attachment 163326 View attachment 163327
That last one was the one I could find with the most people in it

I love seeing the old cars. My aunt and uncle owned an Edsil

 

[Figgy1]

We're all a bunch of space geeks so we all love Kennedy! First up the rocket garden. What's nice is the gates open at 9 but most exhibits don't open until 10 so you have some time to see the outside exhibits before the heat of the day sets in

 

[Figgy1]

This is one of those rides you actually do not want to run through the line! The detail in the castle is amazing!! After dozens of times on this ride, I still manage to find something new each time. Dumbledore's office is great, the first several times I never noticed the pensieve off the left. Duh!

We found a 45 minute posted wait was just about perfect for walking through and having time to really take in the details. Most of our trip it was 30 or less posted and moved much quicker, so we had to ride a few extra times

 

[Figgy1]

Next up the gift shop and hooray! for package pickup. I'm just about done with my Christmas shopping, just a few video games and I'm done BTW I'm not showing what I got there

 

[Figgy1]

Up next the Atlantis building. Last time we were there it was open but it was only a soft. Half the exhibits weren't up and only one of the 2 films on the way in was showing. i thought what we saw then was great! Fully done is even better!

 

[epcotisbest]

We have not been to KSC in many years. Sigh...something else to add to the list of things we don't have time to do. I can see this interrupting pool time.

 

[Figgy1]

That was before the 2 rooms you go into to see films about the shuttle! The shuttle and exhibits. AWESOME!

 

[Figgy1]

As you could see they didn't gloss over any of the shuttle losses. The program program was shown at it's best and worst moments in history. the other good thing is you now can do the Launch Experience from inside the building no more standing outside on line in the sun, if that bothers you.

 

[Figgy1]

James and I wanted to do the bus tour to the Saturn V and tour of the cape. My dh and other ds didn't so they went and grabbed some food while James and I had a great time. The bus driver played space trivia and James and I both got most of the questions right. It was funny because the guy behind us asked if we had done it before. We said yes but when they play the questions do get changed up. I'm a mom so two of the questions were obvious(it involved diapers LOL) and another involved teflon.

 

[Figgy1]

James just loves the Saturn V, when he was five and he first saw it he said I'm going to build something like that someday. One of there retired engineers told him he'd have to do well in math and science to do so. To this day they're both his favorite subjects. The Saturn V center another exhibit that never gets old and seriously who doesn't like Snoopy?

 

[epcotisbest]

James and I wanted to do the bus tour to the Saturn V and tour of the cape. My dh and other ds didn't so they went and grabbed some food while James and I had a great time. The bus driver played space trivia and James and I both got most of the questions right. It was funny because the guy behind us asked if we had done it before. We said yes but when they play the questions do get changed up. I'm a mom so two of the questions were obvious(it involved diapers LOL) and another involved teflon.View attachment 163447 View attachment 163448 View attachment 163449 View attachment 163450 View attachment 163451

Do you get to go in the VAB now?

 

[Figgy1]

Do you get to go in the VAB now?

No There working in there

 

[Figgy1]

The eagle nest we saw. We also saw some very large gators but none of those pics ever come out. Dark gator in dark water taken from a moving bus you (don't) get the picture LOL

After that we saw both IMAX films A Beautiful Planet narrated by Jennifer Lawrence about the earth and The Journey to space narrated by Patric Stewart about trying to get ships to Mars. Both were well done and quite enjoyable. Then we saw Journey Mars explorers wanted, the Astronaut Memorial and exhibit about nature at the cape. The one thing I do miss is The Astronaut Hall of Fame that was down the road(now closed) it's being replaced by Heroes and Legends I see an excuse to go back to Florida

 

[Figgy1]

We closed up Kennedy and made to into South Carolina before needing sleep. My last Florida pic

 

[Figgy1]

Friday August 26 th a Quality Inn somewhere in SC. All I really remember it was clean when I inspected the room when we got in. That and the coffee was horrid in the morning. The hunt for a decent coffee going north on 95 began and we saw no signs of Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts nothing! Life goes an and so does 95. The boys have been asking to stop at South of the Border since I can't remember when and we could always come up with some excuse not to stop. That was mostly luck! We had mostly timed our trips so that it was too early or too late to stop there This time we ran out of excuses.(insert string of very bad words here) We stopped we saw we're never doing it again but at least we'll never hear can we go there ever again

 

[Figgy1]

Rant over and I didn't spend a dime at S.O.B. The ride through the Carolinas was beautiful and so was the weather

Of course we didn't find coffee until Lumberton NC but it was Starbucks and they had coconut milk for my coffee life was good again We made it without the kids complaining about anything not even each other( the ride down is always nice and quiet, sometimes the ride home not so much if they're not watching a movie or playing a video game) until we got to

Then we heard a chorus of can we stop here and go there tomorrow. Seriously? Anyway the rest of the ride home was nice and quiet and no bad traffic a little around DC but not bad at all! I was really surprised at that I thought for sure we'd be stuck in at least one good jam up on a Friday night. When we got home we turned the water back on disconnected the timers on the lights, unpacked the car and fell soundly asleep. Saturday August 27th I did get up get to the farm market and get a mani pedi, thanks to my wonderful nail tech both held up for the entire trip. Now if you're willing to bear with me there's going to be a bit of a mini TR coming my dh just got some pics for me to sort through. I should have those up soon.